Outside of singing at his church occasionally, brilliant Americana singer/songwriter David Wolfenberger
hasn’t performed in the area for quite some time. After working with the group The Marshwiggles in the late ’90s, Wolfenberger put out three stellar solo albums between1999-2006, earning him high praise both domestically and abroad. But besides occasional performances and scant new material (what he has released has been for charity), the 1999
Cincinnati Entertainment Awards winner for Artist of the Year has kept a low profile for the past several years.

Tonight, Wolfenberger is coming "out of exile"
to join an old friend in concert.

Wolfenberger is re-teaming with Mark
Olson, half of the brain trust behind the best work of The Jayhawks, at
Newport’s Southgate House Revival. Wolfenberger
toured extensively with Olson in the early ’00s as a member of The Original Harmony Ridge
Creekdippers, the group Olson formed with then-wife Victoria Williams
after he left The Jayhawks.

Wolfenberger opens tonight's show with a solo, acoustic set at 8 p.m. and he
will also join Olson during his set (along with Olson's current touring partner — and wife — Ingunn Ringvold). Tickets are $12 at the door.

Wolfenberger has been posting some of his older material on his Reverbnation page and, in an email, he said he will be posting new songs "on occasion in the future." Here's one of his earlier cuts, "Tentatively Vince Foster," from his 1999 solo debut, Tales from Thom Scarecrow, released on the local Blue Jordan Records.

• With a Country music base, Rock edge, R&B-inspired three-part harmonies and catchy but emotionally weighty songs, Brooklyn’s The Lone Bellow emerged in 2013 as one of the next potential Americana breakthrough artists. The trio’s well received, self-titled debut — featuring songs written by frontman Zach Williams to help him deal with a tragic horse-riding accident that left his new wife temporarily paralyzed — was released last January on Sony imprint, Descendant Records, to high praise from many high-profile press outlets. (Read more about the group from CityBeat’s preview here.)

The Lone Bellow performs tonight at Oakley’s 20th Century Theater at 8 p.m. Tickets are $17 at the door. Here’s a one-shot video of the trio performing its song “Tree to Grow” in the hills surrounding Los Angeles for the online “SerialBox Singles” series:

• In the two years since Cincinnati Indie Rock band The Sweep released its third album, III, the group has been busy regrouping with a new lineup and writing and recording material for a new album. Sweep singer/songwriter/guitarist Nic Powers and longtime bassist Glen May are now joined in the band by guitarist Brendan Bogosian, who currently also plays guitar with veteran local crew The Tigerlilies, and drummer Joe Klug, who also keeps time for widely-acclaimed Cincy band Wussy.

The Sweep continues its free, every-Tuesday-of-November residency tonight at The Comet in Northside at 9 p.m. The band is being joined by various special guests during the residency — last week’s opener featured the reignited Pillbug (from the forces behind The Fairmount Girls), while this week Halvsies joins The Sweep. For the Nov. 19 show, Wussy’s Chuck Cleaver will also perform and the Nov. 26 residency finale will feature a set from Fists of Love.

Queen City Project release first video from MidPoint Music Festival day party

Besides the official music showcases at September’s MidPoint Music Festival, the 12th annual fest featured the most (and best) “satellite events” in MPMF history. These “unofficial” happenings — ranging from “day parties” to various musical presentations, like the free performances at Findlay Market — greatly added to the electricity MPMF brought to Downtown and Over-the-Rhine. It showed what can happen when creative people get into the MPMF spirit and try to come up with clever ways to add to it.

Some of the best examples of this were found just off the MidPoint Midway area at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, where programmers of the school’s gallery (with presenters Fotofocus) decided to run an exhibit of live music photography by area photographers called Reverberation: Capturing the Live Music Experience during the fest, to capitalize on all of the music lovers flooding the streets of OTR. (Click here to read CityBeat's feature about the exhibit.)

Adding another layer of collaborative coolness to the proceedings was “The MidPoint Sessions,” intimate performances by four Ohio musical acts held at the photography exhibit on the Saturday afternoon of the festival. The great Athens, Ohio, Indie/Orchestral Folk ensemble The Ridges performed and curated the rest of the Ohio-centric lineup, which also included Cincinnati’s Molly Sullivan and The Happy Maladies, plus Columbus’ Indigo Wild.

The MidPoint Sessions were filmed by The Queen City Project, a local organization that has set out to creatively document some of the interesting and unique things going on in contemporary Cincinnati. Here’s an entertaining, quick-cut look at MidPoint through QCP’s lens:

• Tonight at Covington’s Madison Theater you can catch two of the the best and most influential Roots Rock bands of the past 20 years. Drive-By Truckers and Old 97’s might not have had the expansive, obvious influence of, say, Wilco or My Morning Jacket (who also joined forces to tour this year, joined by some guy named Bob Dylan on the summertime Americanarama tour), but it would be foolish to overlook the impact these two bands have had on aspiring artists.

While both groups recently announced the completion of new albums, their current tour together finds each act promoting some refurbished older material. The Old 97’s released the Old 97’s & Waylon Jennings EP in October. The release includes a pair of tracks recorded in 1996 with the Country legend (they were some of Jennings’ final recordings before he died), plus a few unreleased demos. Drive-By Truckers also did some vault-digging, reissuing a remastered version of the band’s third album, the long out-of-print 2000 live effort, Alabama Ass Whuppin’. (Read CityBeat’s Truckers preview here.)

Tonight’s show at the Madison starts at 8 p.m. and is open to all ages. Tickets are $27 at the door.

Here’s one of the Old 97’s’ collaborations with Jennings, “The Other Shoe”:

• A pair of Detroit-area MidPoint Music Festival veterans — Jeecy and the Jungle (which played the Cincy fest this year) and Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas (who played in 2012) — return to the city tonight for a great double-bill at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine. Showtime is 10 p.m. and there is no admission fee.

Both bands have varying elements of R&B, Funk and Soul, which they spin with their own distinct magic. Jeecy and the Jungle go for a gritty, spiky take on R&B reflecting the Garage and Soul spirits of Detroit’s rich musical history, while the Deltas make uniquely broad, evocative Alt/Indie Pop/Rock driven by Hernandez’s phenomenal vocals, which show a fantastic Soul influence.

Hernandez & the Deltas have a new EP called Demons that is officially released next week, though you’ll be able to pick up the CD version at MOTR tonight. Paste magazine recently debuted the material; check out a track below:

• Seems like the Cincinnati area has become a favorite stop for touring artists from the exploding “live Electronica” scene. Arpetrio is a Knoxville, Tenn.-based, improv-happy guitar/bass/drums trio (with each member adding Electro ornamentation) that has been lauded for its trippy, Jazz-like take of live EDM, which touches on Trip Hop, Trap, Trance, Dubstep and other modern Electronic music elements. The group’s This Side Up EP is available as a free download here; get a sample below:

&lt;a href="http://arpetrio.bandcamp.com/album/this-side-up"&gt;This Side Up by Arpetrio&lt;/a&gt;

Arpetrio performs tonight at Corryville’s The Mad Frog. Showtime is 9 p.m. Also on the bill is Ethosine, a Cincinnati quartet featuring members of Skeetones, Bubble Life and The Jive Turkeys. The group also has a free EP you can download — click here or on the player below.

• Nashville Indie Pop Rock crew The Features, which has built up a nice following in Cincy (and appeared at this past summer’s Bunbury Music Festival), returns to the area tonight for an 8:30 p.m. show at the Taft Theatre’s Ballroom. Locals Justin WW and the Even Tiles open the show. Tickets are $15.

The Features’ danceable, highly melodic sound is on glorious display on their most recent album, a self-titled affair released through Kings of Leon’s Serpents and Snakes Records this past spring. Here’s the music video for the album’s “This Disorder,” a clever song about the effect of modern technologies (i.e. smartphones) on our society:

• Classic Country Rock band Poco was formed in 1968 by Richie Furay after his band with Stephen Stills and Neil Young, Buffalo Springfield, called it a day. Despite a lineup that has revolved pretty much since the band began, Poco experienced great success in the ’70s and beyond; its debut, 1969’s Pickin’ Up the Pieces, is considered one of the greatest Country Rock releases of all time. This summer, Poco — now led by co-founder Rusty Young — released All Fired Up, its first album in over a decade.

The current edition of Poco performs tonight in Northern Kentucky at the Newport Syndicate. The pre-show dinner buffet (included in the ticket price) begins at 6 p.m., with openers Kinsey Rose and Laurel Kincaid beginning at 7:30 p.m. Admission ranges from $35-$70. Click here for details.

• Mega Monster Metal superstars GWAR return to Bogart’s in Corryville tonight for a 7:30 p.m., all-ages show. “Earth’s only openly extra-terrestrial rock band” formed in the mid-’80s, developed an over-the-top live show that makes a KISS concert look like a children’s Halloween party (with B-movie horror film theatrics that look straight outta Troma) and have become one of America’s great cult bands.

The group continues to churn out albums that unveil the mythology behind GWAR, the latest being this year’s Battle Maximus. What’s it about? Oh, you know, usual GWAR stuff:

“GWAR's Battle Maximus features twelve brand new tracks that not only honor their departed ally, but tells the story of GWAR's latest struggle against what may be their greatest enemy yet — the insidious "Mr. Perfect", who has travelled through time itself to steal the power of GWAR — the power of immortality, and use this power to mutate the human race into his twisted vision of what the "perfect" human should be. Once again GWAR finds themselves as the only thing standing between the human race and the latest super-powered shithead bent on the destruction of GWAR and the enslavement of their worshippers.”

GWAR front-alien Oderus Urungus recently showed that he does have a softer(ish) side. Here he is reading Goodnight Moon for the children of the galaxy. In his own way, of course (i.e. it’s NSFW):

• On the other end of the sonic spectrum, Over-the-Rhine’s MOTR Pub welcomes Chicago’s lilting, folksy ensemble The Horse’s Ha to the club for a free show tonight. The band was formed in 2002 by Janet Bean, member of great Chicago acts Freakwater and Eleventh Dream Day, and James Elkington, guitarist (and drummer) for various acts, including Jon Langford’s band Skull Orchard. The group’s gorgeous slant on American and British Folk, laced with pointed harmonies and exquisite cello, has been showcased on just a pair of albums, including this summer’s Waterdrawn.

Fans of talented acoustic guitarists will appreciate Elkington’s playing; he recorded a duo album of acoustic fingerstyle guitar pieces with Nathan Salsburg called Avos in 2011. Salsburg is opening tonight free MOTR show at around 10 p.m.

• Brooklyn Indie Folk quartet Jus Post Bellum comes to
Over-the-Rhine's MOTR Pub tonight for a free, 10 p.m. show with local
headliners Young Heirlooms. Inspired by traditional American Roots,
Blues and Country music, as well as modern Folk, the Civil War and
American history in general, Jus Post Bellum (latin for "justice after
war") features the captivating dual vocal approach of
guitarist/keyboardist Geoffrey Wilson and Hannah Jensen and is fleshed
out by the bass and cello of Daniel Dieber and drumming of Zach Dunham.
The group's live shows are said to be quiet, mesmerizing affairs, so
maybe keep your loudmouth drunkard friends at home for the night.

Jus Post Bellum's second album, Oh July, is set for a Nov. 12 release. Here is the new album track "Gimme That Gun":

• For Dar Williams' latest album, last year's In the Time of Gods,
the veteran Folk singer/songwriter looked to the past to address modern
challenges. The songs on the album, featuring guests Shawn Colvin and
Larry Campbell, use characters and tales from Greek mythology to
poetically examine today's personal, social and political issues. Always
noted for her fantastic lyric writing (which often showcases her sharp
wit), In the Time of Gods and its interesting device find
Williams really challenging herself and, ultimately, succeeding on
levels she hadn't reached before.

Here is the opening track from In the Time of Gods, "I Am
the One Who Will Remember Everything":

• Impressive new Cincinnati band Temple plays tonight at
Northside's Mayday, the launch of a mini-tour with Columbus Sludge Metal
crew Bridesmaid. The band makes compelling progressive, psychedelic Metal and
features members of local acts like Black Dove, Paralyzer, The Awakening
and Ohio Knife. Tonight's show also features local band Crushed Velvet
and kicks off at 10 p.m. There is a $5 cover charge.

Click here to check out a pair of songs from the band, or just hit the play button below:

• After four albums on which he played every note, David Obuchowski’s Distant Correspondent project morphed into an actual “band” this year with a self-titled debut album release and the launch of its first full U.S. tour. Obuchowski had been operating the DC project on the side, with his main band, Indie Metal powerhouse Goes Cube, taking up most of his time. Distant Correspondent started to blossom when Obuchowski began trading recordings and collaborating with Michael Lengel over the internet. The collaboration grew to include other members, including Emily Gray from the U.K.’s Meanwhile Back in Communist Russia and acclaimed solo artist Edith Frost.

Fans of Goes Cube should know that Distant Correspondent’s music is a different beast entirely, emitting evocative, hypnotic soundscapes that have landed them the “Dream Pop” tag. For the band’s first full American tour, Cincinnati’s Margaret Darling, whose popular local band The Seedy Seeds announced an indefinite hiatus this past summer, joined the group, taking the place of Frost, who was unable to tour. (Read Brian Baker's DC preview for CityBeat here.)

Here is Distant Correspondent’s music video for the new album track “Shatter.”

• This past September at Cincinnati’s MidPoint Music Festival, South Korean rockers Love X Stereo were one of the more anticipated international acts in the lineup. But due to some travel issues, the band was unable to get out of Korea in time to make the festival. The group, which plays highly danceable Electro Rock music heavily influenced by ’90s American Alternative music and Punk, promised to make it back to Cincinnati as soon as possible and, tonight, Love X Stereo makes good on that promise.

The band performs a free show tonight at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine. Eclectic Bloomington, Ind., Indie/Psych Pop/Rock trio Fluffer — which did perform at this year’s MPMF — opens the show at 10 p.m.

Here is the audio for Love X Stereo’s “Lose to Win,” the lead-off track on the band’s new EP, Glow, which was put together for the group’s first U.S. tour.

Cincinnati Rock crew returns tonight after a six year absence with a new lineup and sound

Greater Cincinnati Rock band Pike 27 was a staple on the local club circuit in the early-to-mid-’00s, playing sweaty, raucous live shows to a dedicated following (headlining and opening for the likes of Dave Alvin and Chuck Prophet) and releasing the acclaimed full-length, Falling Down Hard, in 2001. But in 2007, frontman/guitarist/singer/songwriter Dave Purcell left Cincinnati for Northern Ohio, taking a job as a sociology professor at Kent State.

This past summer, Purcell returned to Cincinnati and resurrected Pike 27 with a new lineup. Returning to his role as Pike 27's bassist is Sean Rhiney, formerly of Clabbergirl (in which Purcell played rhythm guitar) and co-founder of the MidPoint Music Festival. New to Pike are guitarist Mike Fair (Wojo, Mike Fair & the Adventure Seekers) and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Dave Killen, a professor at Cincinnati State.

The “new” Pike 27 has moved away from the Americana/Roots Rock style it was known for, a reflection of the new songs Purcell has written for the band. (The group is also reviving some older material for its upcoming live shows.) Purcell says that while working on the new songs, the members have remarked that the material is more in line with artists like Robyn Hitchcock, The Kinks, Graham Parker and Grant Lee Buffalo — still smart, catchy and rockin’, but with the twang dialed back.

"How do you pin down REM, Elvis Costello or Glen Hansard?" Purcell says of Pike 27’s less easily categorizable style. "We hope to land in there somewhere — jangly, smart, sometimes noisy, joyful. Good to raise a pint to."

New York City Ska legends The Toasters were the bridge
from the late ’70s 2 Tone Records-fueled Ska revival in the U.K. to the one that
brought Ska into the American mainstream in the ’90s. Easily one of the most
influential Ska acts of all time, The Toasters were formed in 1981 by
Robert “Bucket” Hingley, a U.K. native (and the group’s lone constant
member) who had just moved to The States, taking inspiration from the 2 Tone Ska
being created in his homeland (The Beat, The Specials, The
Selecter, etc.).

The Toasters, in turn, helped inspire multitudes of Ska bands to
form, something that ultimately led to the development of so-called Ska
Punk. Having a hard time finding a label, Hingley formed his own, Moon
Ska Records, which grew to become the major American Ska indie
imprint, releasing music (via albums or the label’s popular
compilations) by The Slackers, Dance Hall Crashers, Mustard Plug, Less
Than Jake and No Doubt, among many others. The Moon label was a road-map
to quality American Ska when the music was more underground; the imprint,
which was artist- and consumer-friendly (like Punk label Dischord, Moon
always kept prices low), experienced its greatest success during the
’90s Ska boom, but when the music fell out of mainstream favor, the
label faded away. Hingley moved to Spain,
where he formed another label, Megalith, to continue releasing Toasters albums.

The Toasters were the cool elder statesmen of the Ska
scene and they’ve survived the fickleness of musical trends and an
ever-changing music industry for over 30 years now by doing things on their own terms and keeping true to their vision.

• Nashville’s Escondido came together quickly but very naturally. The project of Jessica
Maros and Tyler James (a solo artist who has also toured as pianist for
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros) got its start in James’ home
studio when he was recording an artist with whom both were friends.
During a recording break, Maros, a Vancouver native and successful
clothing/jewelry designer, was casually playing a song in the studio,
James hit “record,” added some light ornamentation and, essentially,
Escondido was born. That night, the two decided to make an album.
Fittingly, the album — Esondido’s debut, titled The Ghost of Escondido
— was recorded live in just one day with a handful of talented
Nashville friends/musicians, even though it sounds incredibly cohesive,
full-bodied and organic.

The making of the full-length, released at the start of
this year, was driven by the spirit of Ennio Morricone, the legendary
spaghetti western soundtrack genius, and that desert-sunset atmosphere
meshes beautifully with the band’s mix of Indie Rock, Pop and Country.
The end result is mesmerizing, a hazy, dreamy collection of haunted,
mysterious soundscapery and spine-tingling harmonies and vocals, making
the band reminiscent of a slightly twangier, more dynamic and grounded
Mazzy Star. Along with garnering a wide-range of supporters, from the
tastemakers at KCRW to the writers at Vogue, The Ghost of Escondido also made a fan out of eccentric filmmaker/artist/writer/musician David Lynch, who wrote about his love for the band in Mojo magazine.

Here’s the music video for Escondido’s “Black Roses.”

The duo (fleshed out by a full touring band) performs a
free show tonight at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine. New York City’s Indie
Pop/Garage Rock group Unicycle Loves You opens the show at 10 p.m.

• Tonight at Covington’s Madison Theater is a good chance
to hear what a “Jam Band” sounds like in 2013, as several groups join
forces for an all-ages, 8 p.m. show. Or, rather, you’ll hear how almost
no two “Jam Bands” sound alike anymore, making the Grateful
Dead-mimicking cliches about the scene completely outdated. Today, the
“Jam” tag has less real meaning than ever, with the groups earning the
descriptor exploring a huge range of styles. Jam Bands now often share
little more than a tendency to improvise.

Headliners Dopapod epitomize the diversity of the modern
Jam scene with their progressive blend of Electronic music, Jazz, Rock,
Soul, Funk and various other styles. The Brooklyn, N.Y., group released
its third studio album, Redivider, late last year, introducing
fans to a Dopapod first — vocals (previously, the band was all
instrumental). Read Brian Baker’s preview of the show for CityBeat here.

The support lineup for Dopapod is a varied collection of
mostly local bands that reflect the same kind of sonic adventurousness
as the headliners, though, of course, each bringing their own slant —
Ethosine, Nevele, Us Today, Freeform Connection, Peridoni, Aliver Hall
and Blue Moon Soup. Tickets are $15 at the door.

• Though they never reaped the full rewards and commercial
success that some bands that came after them did, Michigan’s Mustard
Plug was one of the early guiding forces behind the ’90s Punk Ska
explosion. The band put out its first album, Skapocalypse Now!,
on cassette in 1992 and moved up to third-wave Ska’s version of 2 Tone
Records, NYC’s Moon Records, for its second full-length, kicking off two
decades of hardcore international touring.

Mustard Plug later joined the roster of Hopeless Records,
which would go on to become one of the top independent Punk labels in
the country. While the vast majority of Ska Punk bands from the ’90s
either moved on to another style of music or imploded after the “craze”
died down, Mustard Plug continues to write new songs, put out new music
and tour on a regular basis, its loyal cult of fans proving that, while
you won’t hear it on the radio anymore, there is still an audience
hungry for Ska Punk done well. Mustard Plug has been operating D.I.Y.
since parting ways with Hopeless; a new album (the band’s first since
2007’s In Black and White) is reportedly finished and due soon thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign.

• October is coming to an end,
which means Rocktober is also almost over and Rocktober on the Square, a
new every-Friday concert series at downtown’s Fountain Square, is
winding down as well. Today at 5 p.m., the final Rocktober on the Square
show starts with a set from great, rootsy singer/songwriter Josh Eagle.

In the 6 p.m. slot is singer/songwriter Mike Oberst of
popular Cincy Folk group The Tillers, who are heading overseas for their
first ever U.K. tour, playing Nov. 1-16 throughout England, Scotland
and Ireland as support for Pokey LaFarge.

The always fantastic 500 Miles to Memphis closes out
Rocktober at 7 p.m. It’s the rowdy, rootsy rockers’ last local show of
the year; the 500MTM fellas are taking a break from performing to go
back into the studio to finish their next album.

&lt;/iframe&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="p1"&gt;• Don’t forget — the One More Girl on a Stage benefit
concerts continue today after last night’s kickoff at various venues in
Over-the-Rhine. The OMG fest takes over the Southgate House Revival in
Newport for a “whole house” show tonight. Here are complete
details.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="p2"&gt;&lt;i&gt;Click here for even more live music options tonight in Greater Cincinnati.&nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/body&gt;&lt;/html&gt;